Lessons from Oz

"Yes, Dorothy, what have you learned?"

"Well, I guess I've learned that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I shouldn't go looking any further than my own backyard. Because if it's not there, I never really lost it to begin with...there's no place like home!"

Vacation is snuggling on a couch in Kiawah Island, South Carolina with my 4 and 7 year old cousins to watch "The Wizard of Oz." There is nothing else to do, no other pressing agenda than to settle in with these sweet girls (after they have fought over who sits where, of course) and watch our "most fav-oh-wit movie evah."

It really is my most favorite movie, has been ever since I was captured by the color, spectacle and wonder of Oz. I wanted to be Dorothy on a grand journey with faithful friends and a cute dog. Well, maybe I just wanted that fabulous dress and ruby slippers. My mom made that possible on Halloween when I was 8 years old. The dress was perfect, just like Judy Garland's, with a white blouse and the trademark blue gingham pinafore. And thanks to two bottles of Wet and Wild nailpolish, I had my ruby slippers.

Now it is my turn to watch it through a child's eyes. The girls narrate the entire viewing and punctuate it with question after question. Madison and I discuss the witch and the flying monkeys and agree that it is violently unfair when they take Toto away. After I explain (again) why the Winkie soldiers are chasing Dorothy, Abby nestles into the crook of my arm and murmurs, "I love my Leslie." Does it get better than that?

I realize that my 8 year old wish has come true. I am in the middle of a grand journey. Many faithful friends accompany me. I don't have the cute dog yet, but as the Wicked Witch says, "All in good time, my pretty, all in good time!"